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Seasonal and Short Timescale Changes on the Martian Surface: Multi-Spacecraft Perspectives
Thomas, N.; Schmidt, F.; Tirsch, D. +7 more
The continued operation of missions such as Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has greatly enhanced our knowledge of seasonal processes on Mars. The most apparent evidence of the importance of seasons on Mars on the large scale is annual variation in the sizes of the Martian polar caps. However, high resol…
Mars Express: 20 Years of Mission, Science Operations and Data Archiving
Johnstone, A.; Geiger, B.; Määttänen, A. +27 more
Launched on 2 June 2003 and arriving at Mars on 25 December 2003 after a 7-month interplanetary cruise, Mars Express was the European Space Agency's first mission to arrive at another planet. After more than 20 years in orbit, the spacecraft and science payload remain in good health and the mission has become the second oldest operational planetar…
Dynamical Phenomena in the Martian Atmosphere Through Mars Express Imaging
Sánchez-Lavega, A.; Tirsch, D.; Spiga, A. +5 more
This review describes the dynamic phenomena in the atmosphere of Mars that are visible in images taken in the visual range through cloud formation and dust lifting. We describe the properties of atmospheric features traced by aerosols covering a large range of spatial and temporal scales, including dynamical interpretations and modelling when avai…
Airglow and Aurora in the Martian Atmosphere: Contributions by the Mars Express and ExoMars TGO Missions
Montmessin, Franck; Fedorova, Anna; Gérard, Jean-Claude +6 more
The study of atmospheric emissions from orbit to probe the middle and upper atmosphere of Mars, which started with the Mariner missions, is living a golden era thanks to the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express mission and other subsequent missions built upon its success, including the ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. Here we summa…
The Ionosphere of Mars After 20 Years of Mars Express Contributions
Pätzold, Martin; González-Galindo, Francisco; Holmström, Mats +6 more
The Martian ionosphere originates from the ionization of the planetary neutral atmosphere by solar radiation. This conductive layer is embedded within the thermosphere and exosphere of Mars where it forms a highly variable interaction region with the solar wind. The Martian ionosphere has been continuously observed by the three plasma instruments …
Geological Record of Water and Wind Processes on Mars as Observed by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera
Jaumann, R.; Tirsch, D.; Hiesinger, H. +9 more
This review paper summarizes the observations and results of the Mars Express Mission and its application in the analysis of geological processes and landforms on Mars during the last 20 years. The Mars Express observations provided an extended data base allowing a comparative evaluation of different geological surface landforms and their time-bas…
Water Ice and Possible Habitability in the Landing Area of Tianwen-1 Mission
Ding, Chunyu; Su, Yan; Li, Jiawei +3 more
The Tianwen-1 mission, marking China's inaugural venture into Mars exploration, successfully deployed the Zhurong rover on Utopia Planitia. This review primarily focuses on the insights provided by the Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (RoPeR), a pivotal component of the mission's scientific payload. The article synthesizes the RoPeR findings with an e…
Dust and Clouds on Mars: The View from Mars Express
Montmessin, F.; Fedorova, A.; Sánchez-Lavega, A. +11 more
European Space Agency's Mars Express (MEX) has been orbiting Mars for 20 years and its instruments have provided a plethora of observations of atmospheric dust and clouds. These observations have been analysed to produce many unique views of the processes leading to dust lifting and cloud formation, and a full picture of the climatologies of dust …
Mars' Water Cycle and Escape: A View from Mars Express and Beyond
Aoki, S.; Villanueva, G. L.; Liuzzi, G. +12 more
The search for water on Mars has long been a theme of intense exploration, as it represents a means of addressing Mars' current climate as well as its evolution in the recent and more distant past. Since the 1970s, several missions have carried instruments to track water in the atmosphere, leading to the conceptualization of a water cycle on Mars …
Composition and Chemistry of the Martian Atmosphere as Observed by Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
Montmessin, Franck; Korablev, Oleg; Fedorova, Anna +13 more
The atmosphere of Mars has been studied for many years now by a long series of missions. The paper focuses on the results obtained by two of these that are led by European researchers overseen by the European Space Agency, i.e., Mars Express which was launched in 2003 and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter launched in 2016. Both missions are still providin…